Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-10-22
A HARD BARGAIN,
BY WALTER BEsANr.
CHAPTER T.

nave more than once told the story Of
the only remarkable thing which ever
happened to me in the course of a longish
NE, but as no one eve believed me, I Left
on telling it. l wish, therefore, to leave
behind me q truthful record, in which
everything shall be set down, as near as !
can remember it, just as it happened. !
am sure need not add a single fact. The
more 1 consider the story, the, more I re-
alize to myself my wonderful escape and
the frightful consequences which q provi.
Dental accident averted from my head,
the more reason I feel to be grateful and
humble. =
have read Of nothing similar to nv
w case. I have consulted books on ap-
partitions, withcraft, and the power of the
uevll as manifested in authentic history.
but L have found absolutely nothing that
can in any way compare with my own
case. II there be any successor to my Mr..
Ebenezer Grumbelow, possessed Of his
unholy powers, endowed with his f1endish
resolve and his diabolical iniquity of self
ishness, this plain and simple narrative
may serve as q warming to young men sit
mated as l was in the year 1928. Except
as a moral example, indeed, I see no use
in telling the story at all.
l have never been o rich man, but I was
once very poor, and it is of this period
that have to write.
AS for my parentage, 1t wa quite OBJ
scure. My mother died when I was still
, boy, and my father, who was not a man
to be proud of as a father, had long be.
tore run away from her and disappeared.
He was a sailor by profession, and I have
heard it runlored that sailors of his time
possessed q wife in every port, besides q
few who lived like my mother, inland, 10
that they could vary the surroundings
when they wished. The wives were all
properly married in church, too, and hon
.st women, every one Of them. What be-
came OF my father I never knew, nor did
ever inquire.
I went through q pretty fair number of
adventures before l settled down to my
drst serious profession. I was travelling
companion and drudge to an it~inerant
tinker, who treated me as kindly as could
be expected when he was sober. When
he was drunk he used to throw the pots
and pans at my head. Then l became q
cabin boy, but only for a single voyage,
Oh board a collier. The ship belonged to
aphilanthroplst, who was too much occu-
pied with the wrongs of tho West Indian
aiggers to think about the rights Of his
own sailors; so his ships, insured far
.bv'e tA~i. roal value, were sent to SEQ to
sink OF swim as it might please Proyi-
aence. I suppose no cabin boy ever had
80 many kicks and cuffs in q single voy-
age as l had. However, my ship carried
me safely from South Shields to the port
Of n There l ran away, and I
heard afterward that on her return voy-
age the Spanking Sally foundered with all
hands. In the minds of those who
knew the captain and his crew per-
sonally there were doubtless, as in
mine, grave fears as to their ultimate des-
tination. After that 1 became steward in
IN Atlantic sailing packet for a couple Of
years; then clerk to a bogus auctioneer
in New York; cashier to a store; all sorts
Of things, but nothing long. Then I came
back to England and, not knowing what
to do with myself, Joined q strolling COM
pany Of actors in the general utility line.
1t was not exactly promotion, but l liked
the life; l liked the work; I liked the ap-
plause; l liked wandering about from
town to town; I even liked, being young
and a fool, the prccarious nature Of the
salary. Heaven knows mine was small
enough, but we were a CHEEKY company,
and one or two members subsequently
rose to distinction. If We had known any
uioNOAs, "IilCu we ulu uOU, we ulSNC nave
remembered that Moliere himself was
once q stroller through France. Some
people think it philosophical to re-
fleet, when they are hard up, how
many great men have been hard up,
too. 1t would have brought no COM
fort to me. Practically I felt little
Inconvenience from poverty save in the
matter Of boots. We went share and
share alike most of us, and there was al
ways plenty to eat ever for my naturally
gigantic appetite. Juliet always used to
reckon me as equal to four.
Juliet was the managers daughter
Juliet Kerrahs, acting as Miss Juliet Al
vanley. She was 10 and I was %, an in
t1ammable and romantic time Of life. We
were thrown a good deal together too, not
only OF the stage, but on it.. was put
into parts to play up to her. Twas Romeo
when she played her namesake, a part